Random Editorial Ramblin$s

(Continued from Page 6.)

greatest automobile organization, discuss their industry and its problems. I wish every lumberman could have heard it. There is only one answer to the question-"Why is the airto industry Prospering?"-and that answer is simPlY-"Brains".

rl. * d.

The men who are making that industry go, aren't the well dressed salesmen in YOUR town, who sell to YOU and YOUR fellow citizens. The driving force behind the auto industry is away back there, back of the factories even, where engineers, and architects, and develo,pment men of all sorts are working out the new ideas that make people buy. New ideas in colors, new ideas in riding qualities, new ideas in performance' new ideas in service, new ideas along all the lines that appeal to human DESIRETHAT'S where the auto business is being created ! That's where the selling is really being done. YOU wouldn't trade in your car for a new one just like it. You would drive it for years first. But along comes that new model, It has things your present car hasn't, even though your car is only six months old. There are things that appeal. Every department is improved. New color combinations. New luxuries. New qualities that fairly bite you. It's won'lerful how a new car can overcome your senses of economv, of necessity, or wisdom. And you BUY ! Not because'of the smooth salesman who handles the car. But because of those men who are every month creating something NEW in cars that appeals to you-and to you-and to all the other you's. ,1. * tf

THAT'S what I'm talking about when I say that the lumber industry is entirely without its most necessarv funCamental. I had a letter from one man disagreeing with me when I say that the lumber industry needed more than anything else an engineering, architectural, testing, Proving department, and HASN'T ANY. He called my attention to the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, and the Government Bureau of Standards. Which simply illus-

Visits Richardson Hot Springs

L. J. Woodson, Wheeler, Osgood Co., San Francisco, returneh to San F'rancisco April 6 from a llusiness trip to Sacramento and Chico. While at the northeln end of the trip he spent a day at Richardson Hot Springs' near Chico. rvhere 1\{rs. Wooclson and their trvo chilclrerr sperrt the Easter holiday rveek.

trates how far off is the lumber idea of necessary things' It's a fact that we have means for discovering the stresse$ and strains of lumber, and prqving its physical qualities' Which interests the consumer and appeals to his dollars a lot. I'm sure ! But what have we in line with this concentration of brains and energy which the auto industry uses to create new ideas in the completed article that makes people buy? Anything?'Well, not that anyone has heard of ! * rt tl.

The great fund of money that is being contributed by the manufacturing industry to the National Lumber Manufacturers Associition should be spent primarily in this wayl The National is the natural medium to do this work' Itf should have a corps of men, just as the auto industry hasf ';,rorking out ideas, plans, that can be made from woodi that will make those who build and who live in buildingS tingle with the desire for ownership, just as the auto engineering department does every weelr of every year in THEIRbusiness'

My personal opinion is that one red-hot building idea and plan, placed in the hands of the dealers of the country' that would make the housewife exclaim with delight just as she does when she sees or tries some of the everlasting new refinements and luxuries that come in the endless succession of new cars, would sell more lumber and bring more renolt'n to the lumber industry than all the other trade promotion activities now in progress in the country in this business, combined. If they only dug up fouq new building thoughts a year-one every quarter-they would re-make the industrY.

Is it too much to ask of the lumber industry-that we follow the example of practical and successful folks who are actually eating our vitals out with their back-of-thefactory salesmanship. Most sawmill money is spent just selling one another, and keeping The Curtis Publishing Company in the list of financial immortals.

Ray Wiess Visits Los Angeles

Ray Wiess, General Sales Man-ager,of the Kirby I umber Co., -Houston, Texas, spent a ferv davs in I os Angeles aroirnd the first of the month. He conferred rvith Clint Laughlin who rvas recently appointed their California hardlrrnoi t.pt"sentative. B;fo;e rettuning to Houston, he planned fo sojourn a feli' rveeks at Phoenix, Arizona'

In Los Angeles

We have a lerge and complete mamufacturing plant in connection with our warehoure at 7O2 E. Slauron .A,venue.

aRED RIVER Eash are a "good bry." The soft, smooth-cutting, even textured CALIFORNIA PINES grt. clean sticking and have the "Old Fashioned White Pine" characteristic of holding their size and shape under a wide range of weather conditions.

CAREFUL WORKMANSHIP, combined with quantity production in our modern factory are refected in a quality product. We are equipped and organized to handle special jobs of any sizerin SASH, DOORS, MILLWORK and BUILT-IN FIXTURES.